This paper seeks to outline how the reception of the first part of Henry IV may have been affected by three different Spanish translations of the play made within the last two centuries. In order to assess the extent to which understanding and appreciation of the original depends on the translation, the author focused this study upon culture-bound elements. These include references to certain uses, practices and beliefs that can only be understood in their own socio-cultural context. As a consequence, these elements pose a particularly difficult task for translators, who may choose among a wide range of techniques to translate them. The analysis of the various techniques used by the translators when rendering a particular group of culture-bound elements in the first part of Henry IV allows to assess the way Elizabethan culture is portrayed in the Spanish translations. In this paper, the author also analyses whether the resulting translations entail a deletion, distortion or accommodation of the original references to the target culture.